Some Thoughts on Riding in Sacramento

In many ways Sacramento has some of the best riding I've personally enjoyed. It's nice and flat, the weather is good, and the drivers are for the most part fairly polite.  Of course, there's the wind. (shakes fist at sky!) There also isn't the best bike infrastructure. While there's nothing we can do about the wind short of building a giant dome around the city, which does sound tempting now that I think about it, there is something we can do about getting better bike lanes and other bicycle amenities. Of course, what we're starting with is nothing to scoff at, but let's be honest here, we could do so much better.

To start with something easy; the city could have a map of bike lanes that was accurate. Right now there is at least one street that's shown as having a lane and instead has a magically appearing and disappearing lane. That's Florin, for those of you keeping track. Of course, 21st has a section that does that, as does 19th in the other direction. You wouldn't know it from the maps.

If you want me to get into the big things, well, let's just say I have dreams. I'd like to see a separated bicycle lane down Freeport Blvd. The right side is hardly used for parking most of the time, how much could it hurt to convert it to a fully protected bike lane. And what with two schools there it just seems like common sense.

A suggestion someone threw out on the facebook page was to have a car free event in midtown. There are a number of cities around the state that do this already, and we all know people love to ride their bikes in mid town. And if we really wanted to get crazy we could even have a street that's just for pedestrians and cyclists. We could at least start with getting cars of K Street again. Maybe extend it past the convention center. I know, I know, crazy talk! I gotta dream big though. Also, R Street.